


Hej Sötnos

by reijeux



Series: Say Hello Universe [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 18:31:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1236673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reijeux/pseuds/reijeux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Say Hello. They both willingly took the next risky step with long-distance communication. Whether or not they would call this a relationship is another thing entirely. She couldn't even understand what she was even feeling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hej Sötnos

**Author's Note:**

> [works on sequel for Say Hello rather than the sequel for Tidal Wave because]
> 
> Events happen in the course of one year. I apologize for awkward sentences omg.  
> Shoutout to ProFlowers and Shari’s Berries, in case anyone wants to hit those up after reading this.  
> Also, I’m sorry for the fact that it’s a bit short u_u
> 
> Sötnos – Sweetheart - lit. Sweet Nose.

She would wake up every morning to emails or offline messages on IM, sent hours before while she was sleeping, telling her to have a good day. On nights before her days off, she’d find herself staying up until midnight to catch him before he’d have to work.

Sometimes, they missed each other completely for days with the way their schedules were. With the added time differences, it was _almost_ impossible for them to ever have a chat.

“ _There’s a place here that I know you’d love_ ,” he had his glasses on, in the midst of waking up one morning. “ _Best coffee I’ve ever tasted in my life._ ”

She couldn’t help but snort, stirring her tea with one hand as she rested her chin on the other.

“You said this about another coffee shop, didn’t you?”

“ _Well, yeah. But I’m serious about this one._ ”

 With a roll of the eyes, she sipped her tea, “You’re going to find another one next week.”

He only chuckled. As a faint beeping was heard, she saw him stand and move off-webcam—most likely getting his own, freshly brewed coffee.

Mornings like this, he’d always get himself ready for work while he talked to her; at one point, she told him he could go ahead and go offline so he could focus on getting ready, but he responded that he’d rather talk to her while getting ready instead. He said it really helped him keep a good mindset throughout the day.

As he sat back down to drink his coffee, she found herself staring at him.

Only a couple months have flown by since he transferred to Stockholm, but she didn’t realize that those months took their toll on him.

“ _Why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Going through some naughty websites? Tsk tsk._ ”

She felt her face heat up, “No. I just realized that you’re slowly turning into a panda.”

“ _Panda?_ ” His eyebrows furrowed [cutely] in thought, before he realized what she meant and chuckled. “ _Aaaah…_ ”

“Don’t work yourself too hard, okay?”

His smile resulted in her chest suddenly tightening.

“ _Don’t worry,_ _Sötnos._ ”

As soon as they both went offline so he could go to work and she could get to bed, she shut her laptop and let out a long breath.

He called her ‘Sötnos’ often—and judging by the fact that he pretty much started using the name the moment he landed in Sweden, he had devoted himself to finding the perfect Swedish nickname to call her.

However, it wasn’t as if they actually were _together_. They both agreed to take the next (risky) step forward, but neither exactly agreed that it would be a relationship. Whether or not one or the other (or both) actually started believing this was a relationship was another thing entirely.

It _seemed_ like they were together, but…

As more time passed, she grew too uneasy to bring the subject up at all.

~+~

“Happy coffee-versary.”

“ _Aww, you remembered_. _I’m so touched._ ”

“I don’t think you understand how much I wanted to beat you in saying it first for once,” She tiredly rubbed her eye before resting her chin on her hand. “I get competitive, you know.”

“ _Oh, I know_.” His knowing smile was enough to knock the breath right out of her. He looked less fatigued than he had looked recently, much to her relief. It only figured that once his workload lightened up, hers would suddenly come piling on her.

As they spoke, she felt herself grow even more tired by the second, and when she woke up next, it was three in the morning and her face was buried in her arms. Seeing her laptop was still open, panic filled her when she realized she fell asleep on him.

Hurriedly smashing the spacebar, the laptop booted back up to show her screen. He had gone offline, much to her guilt, but left her a message.

‘ _Sweet dreams, Sötnos. Don’t work yourself too hard. :)  
(You never told me how cute you look when you’re about to fall asleep.)_ ’

Her face heated up and she shut the laptop, ignoring the ever-growing fluttery feeling within her gut.

~+~

“How are things going with your boy?”

“I told you not to call him that.”

“He’s a boy. And don’t get me started on how he seems to be yours.”

“Eren.”

This resulted in a shrug from the other as he tore a piece of breadstick and popped it into his mouth. She sat with her (borderline) adoptive brother at a restaurant, dipping her own breadstick in some soup she received before their actual meal could be brought out.

“I’m just curious, okay? I mean, this is a long-distance relationship—(“It’s not a relationship”)—and as good as you are at _everything_ , you’re not _that_ experienced with this sort of thing, right?”

“Like _you_ are?”

He sputtered, “This isn’t about me! …. _Fine_ , we’ll drop it!” He sipped his drink, red in the face; she couldn’t help but let out a slight laugh.

“Just so you know, things are going fine.”

She appreciated that she was being looked out for.

~+~

As more time passed, she had grown just too busy with work and tired from everything going on to even attempt getting online to talk. Before she’d go to bed, she’d leave him a quick message to apologize for not talking, and she’d wake up to a message telling her it was alright.

She was given a pleasant surprise one evening after getting home from work to find that someone had gone to the trouble to order and deliver flowers and chocolate-covered strawberries to her.

Finding a card with the flowers, she couldn’t stop the ends of her lips from turning upward even a little as she read it.

‘ _Happy coffee-versary, Sötnos_. _I’ve been thinking of you lately and hope you are taking care of yourself.  
Don’t forget to take breaks and take a couple hours to pamper yourself!_ ’

Setting the card down, she looked at the flowers and the box of strawberries she opened.

The fluttery feeling within her grew even worse, and her chest had this unbearable squeeze; she couldn’t understand what was going on with her, she didn’t know if she felt _happy_ or _sad_ or _angry_ with him for doing whatever he was doing to her—she couldn’t tell at all.

So she cried.

~+~

With his work visa expiring (had it already been a year?), he told her he was expected to come back for a while so he could get it taken care of before leaving for Sweden again.

“Do you need me to pick you up from the airport?” she casually asked, ignoring the growing excitement that began to fill her as she stirred her tea. She finally had more free time now that work was all taken care of, and they were once again back on track to catching each other online.

“ _I’ll be alright. I know how busy you are_.” He gave her his dumb old smile as he rested his chin on his hand, just looking at her.

“I’ll just take those weeks off for vacation, so it won’t be a problem.”

“ _You sure?_ ”

“I’m sure.” Ever since her sudden breakdown with the flowers and strawberries, she had come to a realization, and wanted to confirm it as soon as she could.

Which meant as soon as he landed and walked out of the terminal.

“ _Fine, fine, if you insist_.” He chuckled. “ _I’ll send you the details._ ”

~+~

She spent a good four hours trying to get herself ready on the day she needed to pick him up. In all actuality, she was ready to go after an hour—but she didn’t want to just _wait_ at the airport for hours with nothing to do.

It was strange—she never got nervous. Yet here she was, nervous beyond all belief as she spent the next couple hours at home, dressing up and changing her outfits over and over again. Much of that time was spent just staring at the mirror and telling herself to calm down.

She even went through and smelled all of the perfumes she had (most of them the cheap Christmas present kinds of perfumes she received from Eren over the years), only to decide she wasn’t going to wear perfume at all and just covered herself in body spray.

She lost count of how many times she brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth right after the fresh mint taste went away.

She felt like a fool.

After deciding she was ready enough, she sat on the couch. He wasn’t even going to land in another three hours.

Nothing was going to calm her down or make time go by faster.

With only an hour and a half left, she decided she couldn’t take the wait any longer, getting her shoes on and heading for the door. Making sure she had her keys, she opened the door and was suddenly met with someone standing on her doorstep,  right about to knock.

It took only a moment for everything to register before he opened his mouth.

“Hej, Sötnos.” The dummy smiled his stupid smile and apparently he lied to her about his landing time so she wouldn’t pick him up, and--!

As every single feeling overwhelmed her, she cupped his cheeks and pulled him down into a kiss.

Her realization was confirmed.

And, much to her approval, he returned this realization.

**End**


End file.
